I understand that almost all of you probably know the annoying fact that when a dubbed anime show has so many episodes, there's bound to be voice changes. And not only voice changes, but the whole audio section is screwed. This includes the music .
Well, I just can't help but hate them . You hear the first voices for the show, you get used to them, and accept them as their role . Once changed, the whole thing just seems weird .
DBZ does this all too often . Although, I found the same episodes in the original voices on the internet (someone taped it from Cartoon Network). Speaking of that, two things: 1)did anyone else feel that the new voices, from the voice changes that started at the episode "Android Explosion", seemed like they were all familiar. They sounded like they were all voices from other shows. eg: Old Gohan = Quatra (Gundam Wing), Goku = Vaughn (Vision of Escaflowne), Cell = Jeckal (Mummies Alive) etc... 2)why would 2 channels have the same episodes, but different voices. eg: Cartoon Network & YTV (Canadian).
But in all this, DBZ is only one of the shows that I decided to pick on... Today .
This brings me to another point . Why the hell would they make two different versions of the dubbed show (DBZ). Or at least get two different companies to create their own dubbed series. Seems kinda stupid.

***Sorry to all those anime fans who have already read threads about voice changes over, and over, and over and are just sick of it by now.

There are actually good dubs out there, it's just that unfotunately the ones who get their hands on the popular titles first happen to be the same people that think anime and cartoons are the exact same. go figure.

DBZ is one good example. They change the voices every time they feel like it cause they think no one will notice. Of course, everyone does and all they have to say is sorry, if they say anything at all.

But like I said some dubs are getting good. In my opinion, the English voices for Outlaw Star are better than the original Japanese ones. It would also depend on the series. If the creators want a lot of English or foreign names in their dialogue, when they bring it over of course it's going to sound better. I'm sure everyone would rather hear "McDougal" (Outlaw Star) rather than "Makudugaru". Yet at the same time, we wouldn't want Japanese names to be said like "Kay-tauro" instead of "Keitaro" (Love Hina).

There's not much you can really do...except listen and groan.

"Many people want to change the world, but very few even consider changing themselves."
<<A>My Member Profile</a>> <<A>Read my Xanga</a>>

You don't get it, do you? The other DBZ dub is made by Ocean Group, who happens to be the people who dubbed teh first two seasons of DBZ. This means that if you also notice that some of teh voice actors returned from the first two seasons. Like Scott Mcneil, Brian Drummond, Ted Cole, etc. You are also hearing some of the voices from Gundam Wing because a lot of the people from teh original DBZ dub did acting on Gundam Wing as well.

Vegeta, Piccolo, Krillin, Yamcha, Chi Chi, Tien, Ox King, etc. all have their first 2 season dub voices back. If you also hadn't figured this out, Ocean Group decided to make another dub for the folks in the United Kingdom's Cartoon Network. about episode 108, into season 4, is where you will find there are now two dubbed versions. I am quite happy the UK.YTV dub is from the people who did the first two seasons. Now, I wish Funimation would release both dub versions, with the original Japanese versions on one DVD.

You've got to be kidding . How could the first 2 seasons be compared with the season that I'm talking about, actually it's airing on YTV right now. I even watched the 2 episodes from each season to compare, one after another, and yes, the characters you pointed out do sound the same except for Ox King. But why change such an important character like Goku, because he sounded totally different? And at the same time, the music quality aren't even in the same league. The music of the first 2 seasons was good and it had great timing. The one I talked about had awful timing, sometimes the song slowed down in all the wrong places. eg:Gohan going SSJ2 in the World Martial Arts Tournament. If it is the same company, they did 2 completely different jobs.

Yeah, DBZ's gone through Hell concerning dubs, especially over the last few years.

FUNimation originally began dubbing the show using the Ocean voice group, which is based out of Vancouver (Canada, obviously). They dubbed the first 13 episodes of "DragonBall," 53 episodes of DBZ, and three DBZ movies with this group.

After these two seasons, Saban (their distributer) backed out for good, leaving them with pretty much NOTHING, including no money to continue production with an outside voice group (oh, how the money situation would change... ;_;).

FUNimation began, with episode 54 (beginning of season three) dubbing the episodes in-house with local voice talent. This meant an ENTIRELY new cast. The point, at first, was to attempt to mimic the Ocean cast as best they could. Later on, though, most of the voice actors / actresses have really gotten into the characters, and can claim them as their own.

So FUNi's been doing that ever since.

Somehow, though, this company called KidBiz got the license to do ANOTHER English dub (based out of England, I think?). KidBiz went back and hired the Ocean cast to do the voices, so MANY of the characters got their "original" voice actors back. They've been doing this dub from most of the third season onwards to the end, now.

HOW this dub can air in Canada I'm not sure. Technically speaking, FUNimation has exclusive rights to all DB merchandise and broadcasting in North American and Australia. There's obviously some kind of loophole that KidBiz was able to get around. This is also why FUNimation can't put both dubs on their DVDs; technically, they don't own the rights to the KidBiz dub. I'm pretty sure that in Australia, though, MadMan Ent. is putting out FUNimation's DVDs, and someone's putting out the KidBiz episodes, as well...

As for poor Son Gokuu...

In DBZ he started out with Ian Corlett (who most people will know as Dr. Tofu in Ranma). Around episode 35, Gokuu was switched to Peter Kelemis (who's done voices on Ed, Edd, and Eddy). Peter did Gokuu up until the end of the Saban run with season two, as well as the first three DBZ movies. When FUNimation took over by themselves with season three, local actor Sean Schemmel took over as the voice of Gokuu, and continues to do the voice.

The new KidBiz dub, though... Peter Kelemis took back Gokuu for this dub for a decent run, and got through at least into some part of the Jinzoningen era, I believe... at which point Kirby Morrow (Trowa in Gundam Wing, Cyclops in X-Men Evolution, etc) took over the role.

Ian Corlett left during the second season because.. well.. he just wasn't getting paid enough. I'm not sure if he continues to do much voice work, but I do know he works behind the scenes on script-writing, still. Kelemis... uhh... I have no idea why he stopped. Probably got too many complaints ;_;. As far as I know, Morrow is still doing Gokuu in the KidBiz dub.

The big question for KidBiz is... why? The only solution fans have been able to really come up with is that KidBiz is ripping off FUNimation SO much (the scripts are nearly IDENTICAL... most absolutely verbatim) and churning out crap at such a fast rate, that stations like YTV are able to pay a smaller amount and get MORE material to air than waiting for FUNimation.

On a much larger scale, yeah, it sucks that dubs sometimes have to do through voice changes. I know in the Kenshin dub Soujiro had a voice change about mid-way through the Kyoto arc (I was kinda fond of the first one). There's always Zelgadis in Slayers (forgot the first guy's name, the second is Freeman). It happens, but ah, well.. it even happens in Japanese shows. Both Kamesennin and Chi-Chi had two different seiyuu in DB/DBZ (I think Kamesennin's actually passed away, at some point near the Buu era).

Anime Jedi wrote:I even watched the 2 episodes from each season to compare, one after another, and yes, the characters you pointed out do sound the same except for Ox King.

Oops! I had to double check, and I found that I was wrong. I meant guys like Goku and Vegeta. But I guess it's hard to compare characters like Cell, Pikkon, Trunks etc... , because they were never in the beginning of the series. And through all of this, nobody's really mentioned the fact of the music.

akatoro wrote:Is DBZ good?

Sure, it's pretty good. You just have have a high tolerence level for reruns and a series that the number of episodes could have been easily shortened. Too many episodes that take too much time getting to the main plot. eg: How can we not mention the fight with the Ginyu Force when we think of meaningless. And you gotta love fighting, ki blasts, endless powering up, and endless ways to get stronger.[/quote]

Well, to put my mind at rest, concerning DBZ, I just need to spit out that I liked the beginning, that transition in the middle was ok, I liked it by the time the characters got used to their roles and disliked the newest ones (even though they're a lot of the same guys as in the beginning). Thanks to those that taught me quite a bit more on the world of voice acting. Don't worry Beefmaster10000, I think I get it now.

Anime Jedi wrote:and disliked the newest ones (even though they're a lot of the same guys as in the beginning).

Yeah, that's not completely the voice acting group's fault, though. You'd think since they're the same people, they'd be able to reproduce the same amount of talent from before.

We gotta remember, though, that it's ultimately up to the voice director how things sound and what the final cut is for takes. KidBiz obviously has a HORRIBLE voice director for their new English dub of DBZ. Character voices that used to be perfect (Scott McNeil as "Piccolo") just don't seem to have the same charm as before. Then again, there are some people that don't lose their touch, no matter WHO'S directing them (Ted Cole as "Yamcha"... or as anyone, for that matter ^^).

When you hear bad dubs... blame the director first, the actors second :P.